Adoption of a New Family
by AndiKaneUnderwood
Summary: "A new family?" the child asked, looking up at Phil with a raised eyebrow. "Those never worked out well for me." Phil paused. the child sighed. "But I guess I could give yours a shot." / All characters I've met that have been on or associated with Coulson's team are in the story.
1. Progress

Progress

By: AndiKaneUnderwood

 **Team: Agents of SHIELD**

 **AU: Powers, A/B/O, Hybrid, Adoption(1)**

 _Phil Coulson (32): Beta, Bear Hybrid, superhuman endurance_

 _Melinda May (28): Beta, Panther Hybrid, weapon creation_

 _Alphonso "Mac" Mackenzie (11): Alpha, Gorilla Hybrid, superhuman strength and senses_

 _Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez (11): Omega, Gazelle Hybrid, super speed (snaps back to origin point)_

 _Bobbi Morse (10): Alpha, Fox Hybrid, sonic scream_

 _Lincoln Campbell (9): Alpha, Lion Hybrid, electricity manipulation_

 _Lance Hunter (8): Omega, Mongoose Hybrid, metamorphosis_

 _Daisy Johnson (8): Omega, Butterfly Hybrid, seismic powers_

 _Jemma Simmons (7): Alpha, Tiger Hybrid, biological manipulation_

 _Leo Fitz (7): Omega, Wolf Hybrid, animal mimicry_

If someone had told Melinda May that by the time she was 28, she'd be in charge of not one, not two, not three, but _eight_ small children, she'd never have believed them.

As it was, she was currently shopping for loose fitting hoodies, sweatpants, and hats for a little boy with powers of shapeshifting, their latest ward.

They'd yet to adopt the young child, but the paperwork was in the works, almost complete, and as far as Melinda and her husband Phil where concerned, the child was theirs.

Said little boy, Leopold James Fitz, was currently huddled up against her legs, nodding and shaking his head when asked a question.

"What do you think of this one, honey?" Melinda asked, holding up a pure white hoodie for the seven year old's inspection.

Wide, crystal blue eyes darted up and over the white fabric, then back down and May felt the little boy nodding against her leg.

"Can I get a verbal response this time, Leo? I love hearing your voice." Melinda pleaded.

Leo hesitated, then opened his mouth. "I like it," he murmured, "It seems like it'll fit well and something I would wear often."

Melinda nodded and waved the young lady helping them forward. Handing her the hoodie, Melinda smiled, "This one, as well, please."

The lady smiled back, brightly, and took the hoodie with gentle hands. "Of course, Miss May." The lady quickly left, bumping into absolutely no one as she hurried away.

See, aside from the lady and Melinda and Leo, the store was completely empty.

It was a deal that Phil, lawyer that he was had worked out with the store manager. Melinda came in just before closing with little Leo, stayed in the employee bathrooms until an associate came to tell her that all the people had left, then Melinda had free reign of the store to shop to her satisfaction.

The reason behind it was the same reason that Leo was being adopted.

Leo had a bad track record with people, most of the people he'd known had been manipulators or abusive. Honestly, with exception of his mother (who died in a car crash when Leo was five), no one was kind to Leo before the age of seven.

Melinda continued looking through the racks as she thought about the young boy's past.

 _Adopted~AoS~Adopted~AoS_

Leo's birthright as an Inhuman had been there since he was two and shifted for the first time. Leo's father had been _furious_ when he found out, thinking that Leo's mother had cheated on him, _refusing_ to believe that his bloodline carried dormant Inhuman genes.

Leo had grown up in a hostile home where anything could set his father off on a rampage that could last for minutes, hours, or _days_. His father would hit, scream, punch, kick, and insult Leo until the poor child was in tears, then bring his friends around to laugh with him.

Leo had never known kindness from a man, which was a bad thing for Phil, who wanted nothing more than to be able to comfort the young boy when he was scared.

As a result, Leo struggled with most everyone he came across, afraid that they would suddenly hurt him just as his father and his father's friends had.

Melinda, Alistair Fitz's self-defense trainer, had come to his house to inform him of an early training session the next morning, happened to walk in on a rampage and called the police.

She thought Alistair was just drunk at first and didn't step in because of the risk of making it worse, until she saw him _really_ go after Leo.

Then, it didn't matter if Alistair Fitz was drunk or not, he was harming a kid and Melinda wouldn't accept that.

When the police arrived to find Melinda perched on top of a screaming Alistair with a trembling little boy in her arms and her cell phone in her hand that had recorded the whole thing, the only answer Melinda had for them when asked was, "Leo is innocent."

 _Adopted~AoS~Adopted~AoS_

A tug on the hem of her shirt broke Melinda from her thoughts. She looked down and her onyx eyes met his crystal blue. She knelt down, settling her hand around his small shoulders. _God_ , he's so _young_.

"What's wrong, Leo?" she asked, worry bleeding into her voice.

Leo's small face flushed as he whispered into Melinda's ear, "I have to go."

Melinda nodded. "Alright then, we'll finish here in a moment. Come on."

She led her young adopted child back to the bathrooms. "Do you need anything else, honey?"

Leo flushed again and hesitated.

"Leo?" Melinda knelt down again. "This isn't like your father's rules. You don't have to worry about upsetting me. All you have to do is ask."

Leo sniffled suddenly and opened his mouth, heavy accent getting a little thicker as he spoke. "Will... Will you, uh. Will you stay, stay outside the, um... stay outside the d- The door?"

Melinda hummed softly. "Of course, I will. I'll stay right here, you go on." Melinda opened the door for Leo and waited until he had hesitantly stepped into the room to step into the space beside the door, wedging her foot between the door and the doorway.

"M-Miss Melinda?" Leo called out hesitantly voice shaking.

"I'm right here, honey." Melinda called back soothingly, knocking gently on the door. "I'm here."

She heard Leo's soft sigh, and felt her heart break at the thought that this poor child had been so abused that he was afraid to use the _bathroom_ alone.

Melinda's heart broke a little more when Leo whimpered softly. She began to hum a tune she'd heard on the radio earlier that day.

After a few minutes, she heard a flush and the sink turn on. After a few more heartbeats, Leo called out. "Miss Melinda? I-I'm done."

Melinda opened the door again and held out her hand. "Ready to go back to shopping?"

Leo nodded and grasped her hand tightly in his, back to being shy and mostly silent.

Melinda went back to the racks with Leo holding onto her hand and held up a hat she'd noticed from the bathrooms. "How about this one?"

Leo tilted his head as he examined it, something he did often. Then he nodded and spoke up softly. "Yes."

Melinda paused a moment, under guise of looking over the hat herself and silently cheered for small steps in progress.

She mentally ticked 'speaking without being asked to' off the list of "beginning progress" she'd had in her head and added it to the "making progress" list instead.

With a smile, she gestured the associate over again and held out the hat.

When the associate had scurried off again, Leo slowly detached himself from Melinda's leg and shuffled over to a blue and red cardigan. He hesitantly plucked it from the rack and held it up to Melinda. "Could we... Could we, um... Could we get this, get this one?" he asked softly.

Melinda smiled widely and nodded. "Of course. I think we've gotten enough, why don't we get out of here? Are you ready?"

Leo clutched the cardigan tightly to his chest and nodded. "I'm ready."

The Beta woman held out her hand and Leo took it, letting the elder lead him up to the front desk to pay for all the things they'd bought.

The bags where shoved into the trunk of Melinda's jeep. Leo climbed up into the passenger seat of the black car and settled in quietly.

Melinda slid into the driver's seat and sighed as she started the car.

With a smile, Melinda put her car in park and began backing out of the parking lot. "I'm proud of you, Leo. You're making progress, kiddo. Love you."

Leo smiled back and nodded. "Love you too, Miss-" he paused, "Melinda."

Melinda grinned. _Progress_.

 **(1) Okay, explanation.**

 **There's no SHIELD, but Phil and Melinda met and got married long ago. They adopted Jemma and Daisy first. Then Bobbi, Lance, and Mack. Then Lincoln and Yo-Yo. And finally, Leo.**

 **Jemma's parents died when she was young.**

 **We know Daisy's backstory, so I'll keep it the same here as it is in the show, with the exception of her actually being adopted by Phil and Melinda.**

 **Bobbi's and Mack's parents where friends, they all went on a double date and where killed in a car crash by a drunk driver.**

 **Elena's parents kind of abandoned her by accident when they went off to be missionaries for God and completely forgot to take her, then never came back.**

 **Lance's parents were drug addicts.**

 **Lincoln's parents were killed by a serial arsonist who set their house on fire.**

 **Leo's story is explained in the chapter.**


	2. Hacker

The Hacker

By: AndiKaneUnderwood

Raven had been too young when his parents left him.

Too young and too naive to understand why his parents would sometimes be asleep and not wake up for hours.

He was too young to understand why Mommy shook and screamed and why Daddy would just drop and go to sleep.

He was too _young_ to understand and too _small_ to help.

So, when his mother was in the middle of a shaking fit and his father was passed out on the couch, he called the police like he'd been taught to if someone were to break in or he was in danger and couldn't get to his parents.

" _Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?_ " asked the lady on the other end of the line.

"Can you help me? Mummy is shaking and this funny white stuff is coming from her mouth." Raven asked.

" _Okay, honey, can you tell me where your Daddy is?_ " the lady asked.

"Daddy's sleeping," Raven replied.

" _Can you wake him up?_ "

"No, he went to sleep after drinking his Nighty-Night juice." Raven glanced at his Mom and then back to the phone. "Please hurry, she's screaming and she sounds really hurt."

" _Police officers are on their way to your house, honey._ " the lady replied, " _Just stay on the phone with me so I can make sure you're safe._ "

Raven stayed on the line like he was asked to until the policemen arrived and continued to stay on the line even when the lady hung up. The policemen eventually came over and knelt down next to Raven, "Hey, kiddo. Can I see that phone?"

Raven nodded and held it out to him. "Is Mummy going to be okay?"

"She sure is bud. So's your Dad. What's your name, kiddo?" the officer asked.

"Amadeus Ravenclaw Hunter, but everyone calls me Raven," Raven replied clearly, blinking fast as tears spilled down his cheeks.

"That's a great name, buddy. Listen, Raven, I need you to go with this young lady here and she'll take you to see your parents just as soon as she can, okay?" the officer asked, gesturing over to a lady with blonde hair (like his Mummy) and blue eyes (like his Daddy).

"Hi, honey," said the woman, taking a step forwards and sliding smoothly to her knees, "My name is Mrs. Xavier **(1)**. I'll be taking care of you for now, okay?"

Raven hesitated, then nodded. "Okay," he murmured, "But only until Mummy and Daddy are better."

Mrs. Xavier smiled and nodded and promised that "it's all going to be okay, honey".

Raven had an awful feeling that _nothing_ would be okay for a long time.

 _AoS~Adopted~AoS~Adopted_

Lance Hunter was five when he was removed from his parents' house and placed into foster care.

For the next two years, he bounced from foster home to foster home until someone from America reached out and he was placed in a group home roughly two months after his seventh birthday.

"Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May are good people," he was told, "We think you'll really like it there, Lance."

Lance had rolled his eyes and gone back to pouting as he watched the trees and fences and sky pass him by outside the window.

He'd grown into his Inhuman powers almost six months ago and it was still difficult for him to get a handle on them, because not only did it mean he could mimic powers, he could also mimic people's actions and mannerisms and speech patterns and abilities too.

Similar to the powers of the heroes on the comics Mummy used to read to him.

Little Raven would've loved it. Lance _hated_ it.

It was just another reason he was a freak.

So, he pushed down all the instincts that had grown in over the past six months and prayed every night for it to go away.

He never saw his parents after that awful night.

The only good thing was his new found computer habits.

It was the only thing he dared use his powers for.

While he was waiting to see his parents in the hospital, he caught sight of a teenager writing out some long lines of code on his tablet.

Lance had memorized every last detail, his photographic memory not missing a single detail, and filed it away for later.

When he managed to get his hands on something electronic, he reproduced the code he'd seen and a whole new world opened up before his eyes.

Since then, he'd watched every code breaking video he could find and recreated each one with one hundred percent accuracy.

He could now hack into small-time security systems with little trouble. He was working his way up to bigger systems.

His goal was to one day hack to CIA, FBI, and Pentagon without anyone finding out.

So far, he'd been undetected, but who knew how long that would last.

The car rumbled to a halt with a soft squeal from the breaks and a sharp motion that almost made Lance carsick.

The driver flashed Lance a sheepish smile as Lance threw open the door and crawled out of the car, groaning.

A tap on his shoulder made him look up and into the eyes of a girl with intelligent brown eyes.

"Hello?" he asked curiously.

Her eyes flashed and she turned, "Dad? There's a car in the driveway!"

Lance slowly got to his feet and looked the girl over.

She had an accent like his, but fainter in the slightest bit and with a bit more breath behind the vowels.

Her hair was dark and her eyes matched them, her dress was flower-patterned and a pair of leggings were settled underneath.

"What is it, Jemma?" asked a middle-aged, tawny-haired man as he came out of the house.

The driver of the car stepped forwards to great the man and held out her hand, "Hi, Mr. Coulson? I'm Mrs. Xavier, we spoke on the phone."

"Mr. Coulson" smiled and shook the offered hand. "Yes, I remember Miss Xavier, how are you? This must be Amadeus."

Mr. Coulson looked back at Lance, who huffed, "It's Lance."

Mr. Coulson nodded and smiled again, "Of course, I'm very sorry. How are you, Lance?" he asked, offering his hand to Lance.

Lance shook Mr. Coulson's hand warily. "Fine."

Mr. Coulson nodded and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You've met my daughter, Jemma, already, but why don't you come inside and meet the rest of the crew?"

Lance hesitated, not wanting to go anywhere with this man that wasn't in the public eye, but nodded and turned to snag his bag from the backseat.

"Wonderful. If you'll follow me, Lance, Miss Amos." Phil turned and herded Jemma towards the house, though she protested about wanted to play outside.

They crossed the door and Lance was in awe of what lay before him.

This house was huge.

He almost couldn't believe there could be a house so big.

He'd lived in a small trailer before; a shabby, busted, broken down trailer that was hardly acceptable to house a small family, much less a five-year-old.

His jealousy was flaring, but he pushed it down and away. He'd never needed that emotion before, he didn't need it now.

Lance's eyes flickered from the house to Coulson, he blinked twice. "This place is massive." he murmured.

"Yes, we're hoping you'll be comfortable here, and in time come to feel like part of the family," Coulson replied.

The tawny-haired man looked down and smiled, "My wife and I understand that you've been placed in multiple different homes since you were taken from your parents. That won't be happening here. We intend to keep you here as long as you'll have us."

Lance felt some kind of emotion flood his chest, but he couldn't give a name to it just yet. So, he nodded; a soft, flickering smile spreading across his face.

It felt strange to not feel trapped here, to feel like he could stay, but he gave up on normalcy when mimicking other people's mannerisms became something he did subconsciously.

So, maybe he could stay...

For a while.

 _AoS~Adopted~AoS~Adopted_

Despite the fact that he'd much rather be in his room with codebreaking videos on YouTube playing while he perfected his craft, Phil insisted he meet the others before he settled in. And who was he to refuse?

The first one he met was his roommate, Mack. Mack was an okay person. For an American.

Then, Mack introduced him to Bobbi, explaining how their parents had been killed in twin crashes while they were out on a double date.

Bobbi and Mack didn't look too heartbroken, so maybe they didn't remember their parents.

Bobbi was very pretty, like Jemma, but also not. Bobbi had blonde hair and icy blue eyes that seemed to scrutinize his every move and Lance _hated_ that.

But, he didn't dare screw this up on the first day (in the first hour) and make Mrs. Xavier look for months for another place willing to take him.

He was next introduced to Daisy.

Strangely enough, all four of his new siblings were also Inhumans.

Lance wondered if that was what "they specialize in taking care of kids like you, Lance" meant.

All four of them had different powers. Mack's seemed to revolve around his senses, his eyes flickered white sometimes and Lance's eyes soon followed after. Then, Lance saw him pull an entire branch down from the play park outside and knew that there was more to that than Mack had said.

Bobbi could produce a sonic scream from her vocal cords that could blast people clear to Arizona or liquify them if she's angry enough.

Daisy could produce a similar effect with the vibrations of the world around her; breaking glass, blast waves, and sonic shocks of sound where only the beginning of her power.

Jemma could cause biological warfare in the human body with the wave of her hand; could kill a person or cure them in moments, could change the biological makeup of a person in seconds.

Compared to all of that, Lance's abilities where so small and stupid.

Lance was introduced to "Melinda" after several hours when she came home from her shift at the center; kissing Phil on the cheek and then each of the kids.

"And you must be Lance?" she asked, stopping in front of him.

He nodded, holding out a hand, "Nice to meet you."

The meager manners his mother had managed to drill into him were worth something after all.

Melinda smiled, a small quirk of the lips, and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too, Lance."

 _AoS~Adopted~AoS~Adopted_

As it turned out, Lance's amazing powers only got better and clearer with time. Melinda took to training him as well, soothing him when the insecurities threatened to overtake him.

He warmed up to his new family quickly enough and was running down the hallway with his siblings and fighting over dinner and the TV remote just as fast and playfully as they did.

It didn't faze him when Phil and Melinda adopted two more kids, Lincoln and Elena, later that year nor when they provided shelter for the last, Leo, after Melinda's latest client was arrested for child abuse.

He found a place here with people who love him more than anything else, more than any slight he could slip on.

He never once gave up on the hacking though.

As his new family laughed and cheered and carried on in the living room, Lance sighed and closed his door.

He opened his laptop and began running a piece of harmless code.

Time to get hacking.

 **(1) Hunter is British and so are the Xaviers, so I thought that perhaps they wouldn't live too far from each other. Mrs. Xavier is Charles Xavier's mother.**


End file.
